The PonPon Japanese Team
Ritomo + Mandy Amamiya
Founders Of PonPon Japanese School
We are a Husband/Wife team that started PonPon Japanese School in 2020.
Mandy has a B.Ed In Japanese and has spent many years in Japan including at immersive Japanese Schools and Meiji University in Tokyo.
Ritomo is a Japanese native from Kamakura, Japan.
Indy Nishimatsu
Japanese Teacher
Teacher Specializing in Beginner Learners
Indy has a B.A. Specializing in East Asian studies and has lived in Japan for 5 years!
Indy's first hand experience of learning Japanese makes her a great teacher! She understands the struggle and can share her tricks and tips of how she learned tricky grammar points!
Winkie Tsui
Japanese Teacher
Teacher Specializing in Beginner Learners
Winkie is an Alberta Certified teacher and has a B.Ed in Second Languages Education. She has been studying Japanese at the University of Calgary and in an immersive Japanese School in Kyoto for a number of years.
As a learner and teacher, Winkie believes that one of the best ways to learn languages is through personal hobbies and interests, like Japanese pop-culture, J-Pop/K-Pop, and cooking, which can make learning Japanese fun!
Winkie is currently accepting new students.
Silva Baiton
Japanese Teacher
Teacher Specializing in Beginner-Intermediate Learners
Silva is the newest addition to the PonPon Team!
She has obtained the very elusive JLPT N1 Certificate!
(This is the highest possible level of Japanese fluency)
Silva has a B.A. focusing on Asian Studies, and has lived in Japan for 3 years. She is also currently working on her Masters Degree in comparative literature, specializing in Japanese literature.
Her impressive journey through Japanese makes her an invaluable resource full of great advice and insight for anyone who would like to follow in her footsteps!
